Smarty pants meet Smarty Pins, the new travel game from Google

“Putting trivia on the map” is the tagline from the new travel trivia game from the Google team. The game places trivia questions within the context of a map, which creates an engaging place-specific means to explore and test understanding of the world.

Users are prompted to choose from the following categories: Featured Topics, Arts & Culture, Science & Geography, Sports & Games, Entertainment, and History & Current Events. Trophies are awarded for fast progressions and a leaderboard exists to incentivize friends to play and share.

The game functions by answering enough questions correctly without running out of miles, with more miles awarded for quicker thinking and miles deducted for misplacing pins. The distance from the right answer to the pin drop is removed from the mileage total, and speed bonuses boosting total mileage count.

These pins are what make the game so unusual, as the mechanic for answering questions is to drop a pin on the map for the answer.

This is yet another instance in which the map has become a de facto means of interacting with space, and another indication of how the map has become the standard interface for interactive travel transactions and experiences. The map is key to understanding the world, and games like this are catnip for those who enjoy engaging with that understanding.

Nick Vivion is a writer and strategist. He was a Tnooz reporter and global events lead between August 2012 and July 2015. He was the launch co-founder of Booty's, a global street food restaurant in New Orleans and was recently AVP Operations, North America, at Zomato.